


Goodbye Damian

by buckyismymainman



Series: DC Comics One Shots [16]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Damian's Mom wants to kill the Reader, Fake Character Death, Gen, gender neutral!reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28035396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckyismymainman/pseuds/buckyismymainman
Summary: Damian’s mother plans to kill you in order to eliminate what she considers a distraction for him.  You are forced to fake your death and leave Damian behind for yours and his safety.
Relationships: Damian Wayne/Reader
Series: DC Comics One Shots [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776175
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**BEFORE  
**

Damian scooped you up into his arms as you tried to escape. Your laughter echoed across the open space of the yard. Damian was smiling as he held you closer to his body, his face buried in your neck as he placed soft kisses there. Both of you felt happy at that moment. It seemed like nothing could bring the two of you down.

Bruce watched from the window, a sad smile on his face. Selina came up beside him and looped her arms around him. “How are we going to play this?” She asked as she looked up at him.

Bruce’s eyes drifted closed and he let out a sigh, “I don’t want to do this. I can’t take away his happiness.”

“If you don’t then his mother will. The intel is clear, she wants to hurt Y/N. She thinks that they’ve become a distraction to Damian, and will do everything she can to eliminate the threat.” Selina didn’t want to do this either, but it was protecting you and Damian or having Damian’s mother destroy her son’s happiness and turn him into a monster.

“I know, but he’s just so happy, how can I be the reason that it’s taken from him?”

“But you’re not,” Selina insisted. “Talia is. She’s the reason that Damian is going to have to go through this.”

Jason entered the room, “I’ll keep Y/N safe, Bruce.” Both Selina and Bruce turned to the second oldest son of Bruce’s. He had a grim look on his face, he liked this plan just as much as the others did. “I want to keep Damian and Y/N safe, and as long as Talia is a threat then I’ll protect Y/N.”

Bruce nodded his head, “I know you will. I’ll give them today to be happy, it’s the least I can do. But then tomorrow I’ll tell Y/N what needs to be done.”

A heavy silence hung over the room as they watched you and Damian interact, two people in love and happy, but that was all about to change.

The next day Bruce called you into his office. You wondered what he could want and worried that something serious was going on. You knew the life that Damian and his family led, you knew how dangerous it was. It had never stopped you from loving Damian, and you had never told a single soul who your boyfriend was.

Bruce was facing the windows of his office when you entered, “Alfred said that you wished to speak with me.” You glanced at Selina who was sitting on the corner of Bruce’s desk as well as Jason who was leaning against the bookshelves.

Bruce turned and motioned for you to take a seat across from him. You sat and fidgeted nervously. “There’s no easy way to say this,” Bruce was standing in front of you now, his hands in his pockets so that you couldn’t see the way that he was shaking. “Talia al Ghul wants you dead.”

You swallowed thickly and you felt like it was hard to breathe. Damian’s mother wanted you dead. That was not the news that you thought you were going to hear. “Why?”

“She views you as a distraction,” Jason said. “And she thinks you’re hindering Damian.”

You frowned, “Hindering him? From what?”

“Taking his place as the next Ra’s,” Selina supplied. “Damian was meant to become the next leader of the League, then he came here and look at where he is.”

You shook your head trying to wrap your head around what this meant, “Then why doesn’t he go after the rest of you?”

“She would incite a war with the Justice League,” Bruce said. “Something she doesn’t want. She doesn’t need that type of attention on her.”

“But I’m fair game because I’m a simple civilian, but she has to know that Damian would come for her,” you pointed out. “He wouldn’t let it slide that his mother killed the love of his life.”

“That’s why she would make it look like an accident,” Jason told you. “So we just have to beat her to the punch.”

The realization sank in of what they were asking you, “You want me to fake my death, don’t you?”

They all nodded their heads solemnly. Bruce was the one that hit you with the hardest news of it all. “Y/N, you won’t be able to tell Damian that you’re alive. He can’t know. His reactions have to be genuine.”

Your heart dropped, “No.”

“Y/N, we’re sorry,” Selina began.

“No, you can’t ask that of me!” You screamed, not caring if you made a scene.

Bruce knelt in front of you, pain clearly written on his face, “I’m sorry, Y/N. If there was any other way I would do it, but I can’t. This is how it has to be. I can’t imagine the pain it will bring both of you, but just know I’m going to try and stop Talia, I’ll make it so that you can come back. I promise.” 

Jason put a hand on your shoulder, “It’ll be okay, Y/N. I’ll be with you, I can tell you how Damian is doing. I’ll make sure that you’ll be okay.”

You sat there letting it all sink in. You looked at each of them and said, “All right. How does this need to happen?”

**AFTER**

Damian stood beside your grave and just stared down at your headstone. The funeral had been weeks ago, but he had been here every day. Some days he would talk to you, some days he would just stand silently. Today was one of the days when he let himself cry, when he let out the emotions that he had been holding in since Bruce had told him that you had passed in a car crash.

It didn’t make any sense to him. How could you just be gone? You had been in his arms in his room as the two of you discussed the future. You were going to move out into an apartment together, maybe get another dog. There was even talk of maybe adopting kids like his father had and raising a new generation of vigilantes for Gotham.

Now that was just gone.

And all that was left was a void in Damian’s soul. A void that you used to fill.

He still found himself talking as if you were still alive. He would pause mid-sentence and backtrack. The others tried to say it was okay if he talked about you as if you were still alive, but he would shake his head and continue on with his thought. He couldn’t pretend that you were still alive. He couldn’t give himself that false hope.

He screamed and dropped to his knees, resting his head against your gravestone. “Why?!” He screamed. “Why you?!”

On a hill hidden by some trees, you and Jason stood together. You swiped at your tears with the back of your hand. “I wish I could say something to him,” you whispered. “I wish I could tell him things were going to be okay.”

Jason rested a gentle hand on your shoulder, “He’ll heal, and when he learns the truth then he’ll understand that we did this to protect you. Damian would agree that your safety comes first.” He let his hand drop, “I’m heading back to my bike. I’ll give you a few minutes alone with him, just don’t do anything stupid okay?”

You simply nodded and Jason’s presence disappeared from beside you. Damian had gotten back up and was heading to his bike. He looked toward where you were standing as if sensing your eyes on him. He took a step toward the hill and you quickly retreated. This was for his own good.

Damian narrowed his eyes, had he been imagining things, or were you actually there? He sighed and made his way back to his bike. Someday he would see you again. Someday his pain would stop. He just wished he knew if you were safe and happy wherever you were.


	2. Hello Damian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s been seven months since your supposed death Damian’s mother is captured and he learns that you are still alive and living not far from Gotham.

BEFORE

Damian sat in his room staring out the window as a robin flew by. He snorted at the irony and slowly turned his gaze away from the cloud-covered sky. It seemed like more often than not his days without you seemed cloudy and deprived of sunshine. It had been seven months since they had buried you, seven months since he thought he saw you standing on the hill in the cemetery. 

He had chased after you, hoping to see you again. Hoping and praying that it was you watching him from the trees. But when he reached the spot there was no sign of you. Only tracks where two people had been standing. He had frowned when he saw them, one set reminded him of his brother Jason’s favorite pair of combat boots while the others reminded Damian of shoes that you liked to wear.

He had gone back to the manor and back to Bruce saying that he thought it was you, that he was so sure it had been you watching him. Bruce had merely pulled Damian in for a hug, not sure what to say. He couldn’t tell Damian that it hadn’t been you because it very well could have been. Jason said he was going to take you to the cemetery so you could see Damian one more time before starting over a few towns away.

There was a knock on Damian’s door alerting him to another presence. Alfred poked his head in, “Master Damian, your father wishes to have a word with you.”

Damian nodded and rose to his feet and followed Alfred down the hall toward his father’s study. He passed Selina on the way and they nodded tersely at each other. Damian and Selina didn’t hate one another, but they weren’t exactly eager to be in the other’s presence. They respected each other and understood that both of them cared for Bruce and they weren’t going to debase themselves to petty arguments and the like for Bruce’s sake. 

Alfred gently pushed the door open to Bruce’s study and allowed Damian to enter before closing the door behind him to give father and son some privacy. “Alfred said you wished to speak with me,” Damian said, his hands folded behind his back.

Bruce was eyeing his son from behind his desk wondering how best to break the news. “Your mother was captured by the Justice League earlier after trying to steal some information from a government office in Italy.”

Damian nodded his head, unsurprised to hear this, “I take it she’s currently in one of the League’s holding cells.”

“She is, but the Italian government is calling for us to release her into their custody so that they can deal with her accordingly.”

Damian scoffed, “An Italian prison won’t be able to hold my mother.” Not like one of the League cells could at least.

“The League is aware of this and are currently negotiating terms with the Italian authorities. I called you here to inform you of this and ask if you wanted to speak with her before anything has been decided any further?”

Damian considered his father’s offer, “I would. It’s been some time since I spoke to her. I should probably see how she’s doing.”

“I’ll call Oliver and tell him, we can be on a plane there tonight if you wish.” Damian gave a stiff nod and headed back to his room to back a few things before their trip.

The katana went swinging over your head so fast you almost didn’t dodge it in time. You rolled to the side and quickly hopped back up and went after your assailant. Jason blocked your attack and grinned at you, “You’re getting better.”

You smirked and shoved him away quickly trying to kick his feet out from under him, but he merely jumped up to avoid the attack. “I think you’re just becoming too complacent,” you teased.

For the past seven months you had lived in a little cabin on the outskirts of some unknown town that Jason had found. It wasn’t too far from Gotham, but far enough that you wouldn’t be noticed by anyone. You worked in a little diner earning meager tips and getting hit on by some of the people there. Jason stayed with you most of the time, but he would spend the nights at Wayne Manor so he wouldn’t raise suspicions on where he was going all the time.

Most of the time he lied and said that he had a date with some girl just to avoid Damian’s probing. Jason always thought that Damian was too perceptive for his own good. When he was with you though his sole focus was on training you to make sure that you could defend yourself whenever he wasn’t around. The two of you had grown closer and were now more like siblings than the acquaintances that you had once been.

It was nice to have some attachment to your former life in Gotham around. Jason often brought you news of Damian, though it wasn’t always good. You knew he sugar coated most of it so you wouldn’t be tempted to go running back to Gotham. There wasn’t a chance of you doing that though. This was for your safety as well as Damian. You couldn’t have him hating his mother if she managed to kill you. They had a tentative relationship, but she was still his mother.

You managed to knock Jason’s katana away from him, a triumphant smile on your face and he chuckled. “Okay, enough for today I gotta get ready for work.”

Jason understood and watched you hurry off to get ready for the evening shift at the diner.

Damian stood before his mother’s cell. She was alone on this block and sitting on the cot at the farthest wall staring at her son. It had been five minutes since his arrival and neither of them had spoken a word to the other. Finally, Talia sighed, “Why so sad Damian? Afraid of what may happen to your dear mother?”

Damian kept his stoic look, “No, I’m sure whatever punishment they can come up with will be adequate enough.”

Talia cocked her head to the side and studied her son, “You seem different. Does this have to do with that person you were dating?”

Damian narrowed his eyes at his mother, the first time he had shown any emotion since arriving, “Do not speak their name.”

She grinned, “I had plans to kill them. They were such a distraction, but then they died and I guess I didn’t have to worry about them anymore.” Damian clenched his fists. “Although I did hear something interesting. A little birdie told me that they saw someone who looked suspiciously like Y/N and Jason in a little town not far from Gotham. I wonder what they could be doing there.”

Damian stepped closer to his mother’s cell, “Talk.”

AFTER

The bell on the door to the diner where you worked dinged and you called over your shoulder, “Take a seat wherever you’d like, I’ll be with you in a moment.” You hear retreating footsteps and continued working on the table that had been recently vacated. When you stood and turned you dropped the tray. Damian was sitting a few tables behind you just staring, his face unreadable.

One of your coworkers rushed over and started saying your name, but you were hearing her through a filter. It was almost like you had been submerged in water and everything was muffled. Damian was here. Damian was here and he was staring at you.

He knew you were alive.

You wanted to bolt for the door and try to escape, tell Jason to play it off as if Damian had been seeing things, but you knew that would never work. He was too smart to believe something as simple as that.

“Y/N,” your coworker shook you, her eyes going to the man at the table you were staring at. The two of you were looking at each other so intensely, but you were shaking. “Are you okay? Should I call someone?”

“No Celia,” you finally found your voice. “I need to clock out early. Can you cover the last part of my shift?”

“Yeah, yeah go ahead, it’s dead in here anyway,” you winced at her word choice and quickly ducked into the back.

Celia walked over to the man whose eyes had followed your every move. “Listen, I don’t know who you think you are,” her voice drew his attention away from the door that you disappeared through. “But you better not hurt Y/N.”

Damian merely smiled at the woman, “Y/N is an old friend, they didn’t know I was coming, I just shocked them is all.”

Celia eyed him skeptically, but nodded and headed to the opposite side of the diner to take care of some more customers that had come in. Meanwhile, you were in the back on the phone with Jason.

“Damian’s here,” your voice shook and you glanced over your shoulder to make sure he hadn’t followed you here. “How is he here?”

Jason was cursing, “I was just about to call you. Bruce took him to see his mother, the League captured her and she’s in their custody for the moment. She told him that you were still alive, how she knew I have no clue. I was gonna move you, I’ve been getting our things together here, I thought we would have more time. Y/N, I’m sorry.”

You let out a breath and squared your shoulders, “Well if she’s in custody then there’s no reason for me to be in hiding anymore, and especially if she knew I wasn’t dead.”

“Right, but still this was a big surprise for you. Are you going to be okay?” His concern made you smile, he really was like an older brother to you.

“I’ll be fine, I owe him an explanation,” you said. “I just hope he isn’t too angry.”

“I’ll let you and Damian have some time alone so you can talk. Just let me know if you need anything and I’ll come running,” he offered.

The two of you said your goodbyes and hung up. You gathered your things from your locker in the back and waved goodbye to the cook and entered the main portion of the diner again. Damian was still at the table with a cup of coffee before him. He was watching the steam rising from the surface before lifting the cup to his lips and taking a drink.

You couldn’t quite believe that he was here and that he knew you were alive. Sighing, you walked back over to him, “Hello Damian.”

He looked up, his expression unreadable, “Y/N.”

You flinched at the flatness to his voice, “Let’s go somewhere more private. If we don’t our business will be all over town.” He stood and followed you out to your car, he watched as you fiddled with your keys wondering what was going through your mind at that moment.

The two of you slipped into your car and took off toward the place you called home. The first five minutes were quiet as the two of you just sat there not sure who should speak first. Finally, you couldn’t take it anymore and asked, “Are you mad?”

It took him a moment to answer and that had your heart beating wildly in your chest, “At you? No. At the others? A little.”

“We didn’t want to have to do this, Damian,” you glanced at him, but in the darkness, you couldn’t see his face well. “Your dad wanted to protect the both of us. He wanted to try and protect me and salvage what was left from your relationship with your mom.”

“He should have told me the truth,” Damian’s voice was low as he spoke as if he were trying to hold in his anger as best he could. “I could have protected you. You were my partner, and I should have known. Instead, all of you let me believe that you were dead for seven months.”

“Your mother had to believe I was actually dead,” you argued. “Would you have been able to do that?” He was silent. “Don’t just blame your dad, it was a joint decision and not an easy one to make at that.”

You had pulled into your driveway now and the two of you just sat there in silence. Damian was thinking things over, thinking over what he wanted to say to you next. “Are you going to disappear again?”

“No, not again,” you told him. “With your mother in custody, I think I’m okay for now.”

“Then come home with me,” he said, his gaze turning to you at last. He reached over and took your hand. “Be with me again.”

You looked down at your entwined hands and then glanced back up at him wondering if this was a good idea. “Damian–”

“Please,” his voice broke and he held onto you a little bit tighter. “I can’t lose you again, not now when I know you’re alive.”

You pulled Damian into your arms and held him tightly, he squeezed you back, both of you relieved to be in each other’s arms again. “Give me a few more months here. Let me finish doing things here, I’m training with Jason and I want to complete that, and to be honest I’m not ready to dive back into Gotham life again.”

He pulled back and cupped your face in his hands, “I understand, and take all the time you need. But can I make a request?”

You tilted your head and said, “Depends on what the request is?”

He chuckled, “It’s nothing serious or bad. I was just going to ask if I can come visit you and maybe help you train?”

You smiled, your heart feeling full, “Yes! Did you really think I was going to turn you down?”

He shrugged, “I wasn’t sure if you would still want space to kinda come to terms with the fact that I know and that I want you to come back to Gotham with me.”

“I want to come back,” you assured him. “And I’d love to train with you. I’m kinda excited to show you my katana skills. Jason says I’m pretty good.”

He grinned at you, “Yeah?”

“Mmhm,” you hummed and snuggled closer to him. “Stay tonight?” You asked, you weren’t ready to let him go just yet, not when you hadn’t held him for so long.

“Of course, don’t think for a second I’m going to leave you for the next couple of days. I want to hear everything,” he said. “I want to hear what the last seven months have been going.”

The two of you curled up in your bed together and you just talked. You told him about the friends you had made and what your job was like. You told him about your training with Jason and how frustrated you had been at first. Damian listened while tracing patterns on your back. And slowly you grew more tired and your words slurred, soon you were asleep and Damian smiled.

Kissing your forehead he whispered, “Goodnight, Y/N,” before closing his eyes and falling asleep himself.


End file.
